Cobra Lily offers Asian cuisine with character
Print Edition
COBRA Lily is a new restaurant in Xintiandi with a strong yet feminine personality.
It’s the latest restaurant project by Kelley Lee, the woman behind venues such as Liquid Laundry, Boxing Cat Brewery and Sproutworks. This time, she’s created Cobra Lily as a mysterious, alluring, free-spirited yet slightly dangerous character.
As stated on the cocktail menu: “She’s in Asia. She’s fanning herself in steamy streets of Bangkok, strolling in the shops of Roppongi, wandering down the alleyways of Wanchai, having a cocktail in the hutongs of Beijing, exploring in the night markets of Taipei, eating in the street stalls of Penang, riding in a rickshaw down the lanes of Delhi, disappearing into a nightclub in Seoul.”
The highly stylized interior adds to the mysterious Asian vibe. Elements of the surrounding shikumen laneway are mixed with modern furniture. “When you walk into Cobra Lily, you feel as if you are still in the alleyway somehow, but you’ve chanced upon this hidden place. We wanted to highlight the skylight and so we decided to build a DJ booth which hangs over the entire lounge,” Lee said.
“Opening up Cobra Lily is not so much in line with the current trend of Asian plates, but more about respecting the location of the restaurant inside Xintiandi. In such a characteristic shikumen building, we wanted to restore the feeling of the area and the food. We didn’t want to cover it and make it Westernized but instead highlight aspects of Asian culture and modernize it.
“At the same time, I do believe that Shanghai is ready for a modern Asian restaurant which is able to mesh all of Asia’s best flavors and techniques together versus highlighting just one culture or cuisine,” she added.
The interior is divided into a dining area and cocktail lounge, which makes it suitable for an apertivo with lingering conversation or a full dining experience.
I started off my Cobra Lily evening with their Asian inspired cocktail, Tokyo Lights, at the bar area. It’s a fairly feminine creation with a mixture of Hendrick’s gin, Kaffir infused gin, midori, egg white, motcha green tea syrup. Other signatures are equally creative with a feminine touch.
The dinner menu, as Lee emphasized, is not tied to any one culture or genre. She is experimenting with ingredients and pairings while also sticking close to traditional preparations and flavors. “Some of our star dishes, including Hamachi Kinilaw and Black Don’t Crack, show how we take traditional dishes and modernize them by using different ingredients or platings to keep thing interesting,” Lee said.
Among them, the star of the show was Bang Bang Banh Cuon: a Vietnamese rice ravioli featuring wild Yunnan chanterelles, porcini, black trumpet mushrooms with minced pork, fried shallots and herbs, served with truffled fish sauce. It was a creative way to take Vietnamese rice ravioli to a more sophisticated level, by injecting an earthy taste into what could otherwise be a simplistic dish. The distinctive aromas of the mushrooms will keep you reaching for another bite.
Cobra Lily
Opening hours: 11am-2am
Average price: 300 yuan
Address: No. 19 Xintiandi, 181 Taicang Rd
Tel: 5351-0116
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